(Part 6)

"Where are you going?" I jerked to a stop in surprise, utterly flabbergasted at the fact that he was awake. 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was still high in the sky. He was awake. It was almost impossible, but he was alive and conscious.

If I hadn't been planning to leave, I would already be running out of the house in shock. Surely he was possessed by a talking ghost? It couldn't be him, awake and alive in his own body at this time of the day, could it?

"What's wrong?" He asked with a hint of curiosity, but with a whole load of laziness in his voice that was unique only to him. "Where you going?"

"Hell." I answered honestly, shrugging to myself internally. I had intended to leave him alone to rot in my home without a word –since I could consider it a form of extended repayment to his father's kind deed. But since he had woken up, then I might as well just give him a heads-up on where I was heading.

"What; so you found a way to Hell?" He shifted so that he was lying on his side on my couch –the one I haven't been able to sleep on for the past two weeks because he had been literally lying on it the whole time.

"Indirectly so." I reasoned, setting my backpack down at my side and beginning to check through my things. I wasn't exactly sure what I needed, but I'd packed with the focus of keeping light-feet. My plan was actually still pretty murky, but at least I had something to go by now instead of grasping at straws and wondering whether Dante's story was true.

At least now I knew; Dante, lazy as a half-demon that he was, was at least honest in his story-telling. Leah and Vergil had gone to another world that they coined the 'Human World', and they had been moved there by angels. How did I confirm?

After two weeks of hard researching, I managed to stumble my way into an angel himself. In fact, I found him with such coincidence that I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or not. Either way, the angel had introduced himself as the angel of Death, Azazel. It wasn't a nice name for an angel, but I guess beggars couldn't be choosers. Azazel had introduced himself to me, and said that he knew of my intention to look for Leah and Vergil.

He was quite a bastard, though, because he always held that 'I-am-better-than-you' expression and tone of voice. I had rather expected angels to be nicer in general, not have black wings, and generally treat the humans their master made nicely. Instead, what I got was a gruff, not-so-happy-looking angel who sounded like he rather be talking to dogs than to me.

Still, I managed to get some answers to my questions, before he threw me the game-changer. He told me to pack my things and meet him at the same place we met –which happened to be a god-forsaken street at the corner of Limbo City. It was so god-forsaken that I suspected the demons might not even want to hide there.

"What do you mean 'indirectly'?" He asked with a yawn, stretching out like a cat. "And unless you say you're planning to murder some innocent people then kill yourself to go to Hell, humour me."

I wondered why Dante found it so fricking easy to order me around. Did he really have no sense of what was the social convention? Quite literally, ever since realizing that he could sponge off me, he had done as much of it as he could. He slept for majority of the day and night, got up to use to bathroom, shower, eat a single meal, and fall back asleep. It had been his routine for the past two weeks, and I was still having a hard time trying to understand how he could maintain his physique. Was being half-demon equal to being blessed with a good body figure forever?

"I found an angel. He's bringing me to find Leah." I replied, zipping up my bag again. "I left a bit of cash on the table. Don't bother trying to find my credit cards. I locked my accounts down. I've paid the rent for the next few months, though. So, just in case I don't plan on coming back to see your sorry ass, this is goodbye forever, Mr. Sparda."

"I'll guard your house then, Ms. Max 'Justine' Cartwright." He didn't seem disturbed at all at my leaving, but I guessed that there was little that I could help with. This guy was useless, after all. There was no asking him to do anything. I was past the point of hoping to scold him or insult him into submission. No amount of pushing –subtle or obvious –was going to work anyway.

"My name isn't Justine." I sighed once more. Ever since settling on that name two weeks ago, he hadn't let it go. Sometimes he called me Max, sometimes he called me Justine. Sometimes, he just called me 'woman', and other times, 'hot stuff'. While I was partially flattered to be considered attractive by someone as attractive as him, it was still a big turn off when I knew the compliment came from a lazy good-for-nothing. I bet he was too tired on a daily basis to even think of having sex.

"Whatever you say, Justine. I'll see ya in the Otherworld with my brother and sister when I die." He gave a short, lethargic wave of hand, spun around so that his back was to the world, his face hiding in the cocoon of the couch.

"Try not to tear my house down to the ground just in case I have to come back. And when I come back with your father, try not to cry too much and embarrass yourself." I promised, hearing him grunt a little.

Shaking my head at how hopeless the man was, I closed the door behind me and locked the door to my house for what-could-be my last time. I wasn't sure if I was going to come back or not. I wasn't sure if I was going to survive or not. In fact, I wasn't even sure if the man I met was a real angel or not. Perhaps 'Azazel' had been a loony wearing a very convincing winged costume. Perhaps someone knew of my search for angels, and was trying to take advantage of my idiocy.

I guess I could only risk things. Besides, I had packed my trusty demon-hunting guns, so I guess I could do something about my situation if things got ugly.

Muttering to myself about how crazy I probably was, and how a certain pair of parents in heaven would be utterly disappointed in a certain utterly delusional daughter, I trudged down the stairs of my apartment, checking my watch. If I hurried my steps a little more, I would reach the meeting place just in time. Azazel had given me the impression that things would be royally screwed if I didn't follow instructions.

The way he had spoken had sounded as if he was used to have someone obeying him –which totally made him wonder. From what Dante had told me, his sister Leah had been Azazel's ward. So, if Leah Cartlier had someone like Azazel as a guardian angel, then how screwed up was she? In fact, how had she survived getting to know Dante? Was Dante's brother the same? How could she love someone that looked like Dante, and not forget that a man with the same face could be just sleeping for years without waking?

Then again, I couldn't judge her, because I had never met Vergil before.

Silently, I made my mind to cast my judgements after I met the two.

Maybe they were different.

Maybe Dante was the only freak in the family.

Hopefully.

____________________________________________________________________________________

"You've come." The greeting was in the same 'I-expected-you-to-be-better' tone of voice, and I just repressed my sigh as I approached the lone figure standing in the middle of the deserted street. Quite possibly, the only people who would ever think to walk here are those that desperately need a place to stash a dead body, or someone who wanted to die in utter peace and never be found. But, somehow, the two of us standing on this road had neither of such thoughts, which made us totally out of setting.

Think something horrible: Like peeing in public in a wedding, or playing a happy song during a funeral. It was the same kind of feeling I had when I walked down the road to meet Azazel there.

"So, what's going to happen?" I asked, not sure regret was the feeling weighing heavily inside my heart, or if uncertainty was stronger. "Am I going to die or something?"

"Put it in simple terms: I am bringing you up to Heaven to bring you down to the Human World." Azazel answered, facing me with his arms crossed. I know he was supposed to be an amazing specimen of an angel, but did he have to be so god-damned tall? He could literally shelter my entire being from the sunlight if he just stood beside me.

Yes, I do have to be tall. I would hardly be an imposing Angel of Death if I were a midget.

The answer came like a whisper in the wind, and if I wasn't in this abandoned street, I would have looked around for a second person around us. But it was extremely obvious right from the start that no one was around to find the both of us, so I stopped and gaped at him.

"You can hear my thoughts?!?"

I am an angel. There is little reason why I cannot.

As if the emphasis his superiority, he did the mind-speaking thing once more, his mouth not moving, but me hearing his voice clearly in my ears. It was utterly annoying to know that he could hear my every thoughts. Which meant that he heard my gushing when I first met him... and the vulgarities that I spewed at him in my mind when I thought he was an utter loony.

It wasn't very kind of you to label me under the same group as Dante Sparda, but I digress. I am a gentleman enough to refrain from commenting about your observations about me.

That wasn't very gentlemanly either, was it? Stupid stupid angel.

"Regardless." He spoke aloud again, as if speaking in my mind was getting tiring for him. I would suspect so, but he always thought himself the better being, didn't he? Stupid, stupid angel. "We should be on our way."

"What about my things?" I asked, feeling a little stupid now having brought my bag. "I can't bring them with me to Heaven, can I?"

"You don't have to worry." Azazel answered, and stepped forwards till he was chest-to-nose with me. Quite literally, he blocked out the sun for me, and I found myself staring into washboard abs. He could totally level against Dante with those abs. That would be interesting: an angel versus a half-demon.

"Take my hand." The order was given, and if only the tone was a little softer, I could almost imagine it as a romantic kind of invitation. But such was my sad love life; the fact that I never had a boyfriend probably spoke for everything, didn't it? I was desperate enough to hope for something romantic from an 'I-am-high-and-mighty' angel.

Take my hand, Max. Romance can await once you have completed your mission.

I looked up at him in surprise. He had never mentioned anything about a 'mission'. I only thought he was being extremely nice to offer me a helping hand by bringing me to his ex-ward. But what if... I was in something bigger that I didn't know about? Worse, what if I was a pawn on the chess board? Crap, was I going to be sacrificed by the Omniscient God?

I am waiting, Max.

Yeah, if only angels could gain a bit more patient, maybe he could understand that I was a fricking human. Of course I cared about my own survival! Wasn't he supposed to be super used to dealing with humans like us? Azazel had probably walked on the earth for a million years, hadn't he? Wouldn't he be more used to this?

I heard the sigh both in my ears and my head.

"I didn't wish to do this, but..." I heard him say with another loud sigh, then a hand placed itself on my forehead in a not-very-gentle manner.

The next moment, there was a flash of blinding white light.

I think I was blinded and temporarily deaf. I think I also screamed a little –at least a shriek to display my amazing vocals.

But I only think it happened.

Because, actually, I had fallen unconscious by then.